Replaceable Bilayer Structure for Two-Dimensional Resistive Sensor Array

Two-dimensional resistive sensor arrays (2-D RSAs) have wide applications including intelligent robots, medical diagnosis, wearable devices,
etc
. For fast replacing a damaged sensitive unit or changing the function of a sensitive unit which were difficult to realize in most sensor arrays, we proposed sensitive unit with replaceable bilayer structure (SU-RBS) for the 2-D RSA. In a SU-RBS, each two-end resistive sensing unit comprises a replaceable sensitive layer (RSL) and a fixed electrode layer (FEL). Every RSL is fitted on its FEL which is fixed on a substrate in shared row-column fashion. For fast removing and reinstalling the RSL, a hook Velcro and a loop Velcro are used with the hook Velcro on the RSL’s bottom surface and the loop Velcro on the FEL’s top surface. Two pairs of metal wire electrodes in spiral shape are used for good electrical connection between the RSL and its FEL. On the RSL, each metal pin of the two-end resistive sensor is coiled into a spiral pin electrode and fixed on the Velcro’s hook surface. On the FEL, two spiral wire electrodes with one for shared column electrode and the other for shared row electrode are fixed on the Velcro’s loop surface. For evaluating the performance of the sensor array based on the SU-RBS, a double-layer sensing glove was designed and its experiments were implemented. The experimental results show that the SU-RBS-based RSA of low cost and easy replaceability has good performance.